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In this paper discusses how to design the highway embankment with an optimum process to
get a minimum area of the highway embankment to reduce the cost of construction, and the
problems of soft clay soil in southern of Iraq when construction highway embankment as low
bearing capacity and excessive settlement and the way to treat it.At beginning a model of the
high way embankment without improving of soft clay soil for height of highway embankments
(H=2m and H=3m) was built to note the problems which will be faced when construction of
highway embankment in the future. When the height of embankment is (H=2m) the excessive
settlement appears but when the height of embankment is (H=3m) the low bearing capacity as
well as the excessive settlement will appear. To avoid these problems, the soft clay soil will be
improved by using stone columns and design the stone columns also with optimum process to
get minimum area of stone columns that can carry the applied load without any problem like
low bearing capacity or excessive settlement with lowest cost. When the stone columns are
used to improve the soft clay soil, it can note reduce in settlement by (99%) for height of
highway embankment (H=2m), and increase in bearing capacity to (15%) for height of
highway embankment (H=3m) for certain diameter as minimum increase can carry the load
applied on foundation. The highway embankment with stone column modeling with ANSYS
software program and this program very useful to help to find optimum design by optimization
tool, and use geo slope program to find slope stability for highway embankment by Bishops
method.
Key words: stone columns, highway embankment, soft clay, and diameter.
Cite this Article Abdul-Hassan K. Al-Shukur and Huda Nihad Al-Khafajy, Optimum Design
for Highway Embankment with Stone Column. International Journal of Civil Engineering and
Technology, 8(1), 2017, pp. 863872.
http://www.iaeme.com/IJCIET/issues.asp?JType=IJCIET&VType=8&IType=1
1. INTRODUCTION
The purpose of optimization is to find the best possible solution among many potential solutions
satisfying the chosen criteria. Designers often base their designs on the minimum cost as an objective,
taking into account mainly the costs of the structure itself, safety, and serviceability.
An embankment is an artificial barrier that typically is used to hold back water or to support a
roadway, railway, or canal. The material use in embankment can be naturel like (sand, rock.etc.) or
manmade, in general any material can be use but non organic material. The highway embankment
consists of soil that is placed on the embankment foundation in order to raise the level of the roadway
to the correct grade and to provide adequate support for the layers of base and surface courses that
make up the roadway. Since the embankment foundation and embankment provide the basic support
of the entire roadway, it is very important that they be properly constructed in accordance with all
plans and specifications. Grades, slopes, density, and all other controls must be accurately monitored.
The highway embankment founded on soft clay soil. Soft clays represent a well-known category of
problematic soils which are generally encountered under the form of deposited layers in coastal areas.
Several problems are faced when dealing with the study of soft clays from field investigation, soil
characterization, behavior modeling, and stability of geotechnical structures up to ground
improvement solutions. Studying the behavior of soft clays especially requires a thorough
determination of their geotechnical parameters. In Iraq, the problems of this soil taken space from the
attention of geologists and civil engineers, because about 35% of the Iraqi clay soils (especially
southern Iraq) are weak[1,2]. So, necessity to improve soil properties for road building has resulted in
the use of various stabilizers. Ground improvement is normally understood as the modification of the
existing physical properties of the ground beneath a site to sufficient depth to enable effective,
economic, and safe permanent or temporary construction in practical timescales [3]. Typical objectives
would be one or a combination of the following:
1. Improve bearing capacity by increasing in shear strength or density.
2. Minimize total or differential settlements of buildings or structures by reduction in compressibility.
3. Minimize flow of ground water to prevent inundation or water damage by reduction in permeability
4. Prevention of liquefaction or reduction in lateral spreading beneath or near both new and existing
structures during earthquakes, employing densification, replacement with stronger materials, or deep
drainage.
5. Conversely, an improvement in deep drainage in order to assist preloading or surcharge techniques.
6. Controlled displacement of the ground in order to dispel previous differential settlements or ground
2.2.3. Settlement
After construction the stone column and at the center of building the settlement for each layer i is
expressed as follows:
1234
S=5 7 ;56 )7<869 }
(5)
6 89 ({:
=
Where: (ai) the replacement ratio for layer i (ai= ,A: total area within the unit cell ,Ac: area of
=>
stone column),(Ecol)young modulus of stone column, (Esoil) young modulus of soft clay, (t)average of
vertical stress exerted by building and (hi) layer thickness.
The total settlement (S) should remain below the values set by the operation condition.
Lc:length of column
Rc: average radius of the column
Vertical failure stress (qr) within the column equal to :
qr = min(qre , qrp , 1.6 Mpa).At the service limit state (SLS), the allowable vertical stress (qaSLS) within
the column is obtained by applying safety factor of 2 to the vertical failure stress (qr) :
Value of stress within column at the layer i (ci) can be expressed as :
7 89 34
ci= (8)
56 7 89 ( : ;56 7<869 %
The stresses should remain below maximum allowable values (ci qaSLS)
The properties of soft clay material were taken nearby Korek company Building Al-Hilla City.
The table below shown properties of material and information about design of case study:
Infeasible set
H M Qu Qall Se Sp Ssec St Streq Fs A
m . Kn/m2 Kn/m2 mm mm mm mm mm .. m2
*
2 0.43 60 50.246 63.615 177.05 9 249.665 50 4.475 31.16
*
3 0.43 60< 69.094 54.730 211.25 9 274.98 50 2.53 53.6
In the table above which showed the initial set (initial value of design variable) and which factor
failed (cell in blue color), It can be notes in initial set the bearing capacity is less than the required
value and the total settlement is more than the required value (excessive settlement). In Infeasible set
the same problem because the soil is wake and cannot be carried the load without failed. At height of
embankment (H=2m) the bearing capacity of soft soil can carry the applied load but the problem still
with the excessive settlement, the settlement within the soil is very high. The reduction in settlementis
(80%)
Thats mean it needs (80%) reduction in settlement to reach for required settlement.
At height of embankment (H=3m) in addition to the problem of excessive settlement the average
of bearing capacity of soft clay is less than the allowable stress from embankment applied on soil as
shown in the table above thats mean the soil cannot be able to carry the load applied on it. The
reduction in settlementis (81.8%), and the Increase in bearing capacity is (15.15%).Thats mean it
needs (15.15%) increasing in bearing capacity of soft clay to carry the applied load.
In this case its need to improve the soft clay to increase bearing capacity and reduce the excessive
settlement. In this thesis the stone columns will be used for this purpose as mentioned before.
200
150
100
50
0
without improving with improving
d=0.5 h=2 249.048 7.7469
d=0.55 h=3 274.422 7.9735
The improvement in bearing capacity with stone columns shown in figure (8) below, this figure
shows the different in bearing capacity between the soil with and without improvement for the same
properties of embankment in table (5).
72
bearing capacity(kn/m^2) 70
68
66
64
62
60
58
56
54
without improving with improving
d=0.5 h=2 60 61.884
d=0.55 h=3 60 70.826
Figure (8) the Bearing Capacity With and Without Improving Soil
In figure above it can be noted the improvement in bearing capacity when using stone columns, the
percentage of increasing in bearing capacity depends on diameter of stone column; with increasing the
diameter of stone columns, the improvement in bearing capacity increases for the same height of
embankment. For minimum area of embankment and stone columns using steeper slope for
embankment and minimum diameter of stone columns which achieve the recommendation of design.
The percentage of increasing in bearing capacity after improving soil for height of embankment
(H=2m) with minimum diameter which archive the recommendation of design is (3.14%).In table (5)
it can be noted that the height of embankment (H=2m) doesnt need to improving in bearing capacity
as refer before but need to reduce the excessive settlement then the minimum diameter of stone
columns (D=0.5m) use to improve soft clay to reduce settlement within acceptable limit. The
percentage of increasing in bearing capacity after improving soft clay soil for height of embankment
(H=3m) is (18.04%). From table (5) and for height of embankment (H=3m) its need to improve soft
clay soil to increase bearing capacity and reduce excessive settlement as refer before, then (D=0.55m)
its the minimum diameter of stone columns use for improving soft clay to archive the
recommendation of design.
At height of embankment (H=3m) it can notes the dominate factor in design it is bearing capacity
for this reason its need to increasing diameter of stone columns from (0.5m for (H=2m) to 0.55m for
(H=3m)) to improve bearing capacity until the foundation can carry the load applied on it.
5. CONCLUSIONS
The ANSYS APDL is efficient tool to simulate highway embankment foundation interaction problem
and optimization process.
The individual-accumulative optimization technique used in this researcher gives reasonable procedure
to carry out the factor of safety individually.
The soft clay soil in southern of Iraq cannot carry the applied load and it is failed by bearing capacity
and excessive settlement for that it is necessary to improve it by suitable method before construction of
highway embankment to avoid failed it by bearing capacity and excessive settlement, in this thesis
improve soft clay soil by stone columns.
The percentages of saving cost and minimize the diameter of stone column between ordinary and
optimum method is (32.5%) it is mean preferably used the optimum process.
At height of highway embankment (H=2m) without improving soft clay soil the foundation failed by
excessive settlement and at height of highway embankment (H=3m) the foundation of soft clay failed
by bearing capacity addition to excessive settlement.
For height of highway embankment (H=2m) without improving soft clay soil the excessive settlement
reach about (80%) above acceptable limit and For height of highway embankment (H=3m) without
improving soft clay soil the average bearing capacity of soft clay less than about (15%) from allowable
stress applied on foundation by highway embankment and traffic load.
For height of highway embankment (H=2m) and after improving soft clay soil gat redaction in
settlement about (99%) for certain area replacement ratio (35%).The minimum diameter of stone
columns it need to improve bearing capacity for height of highway embankment (H=3m) is (D=0.55m)
and this diameter of stone columns it is gave about (18%) increase in bearing capacity of foundation.
REFERENCES
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Improvement Using Stone Columns and Dynamic Compaction Techniques, Eng. & Tech. Journal
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Submitted to the Building & Construction Engineering Department University of Technology
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Francis Group
[4] Manual Geotechnical Design StandardMinimum Requirements, State of Queensland (Department
of Transport and Main Roads, February 2015)
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